Sealants such as caulk and adhesives are commonly provided in and dispensed from cylindrical tubes having a monolithic tapering (elongated conical, for example) plastic dispensing tip that is closed at its outermost tapered end upon delivery to an end user. Such tubes also commonly include a plastic/foil seal at the interface between the tube and dispensing tip. The dispensing tip must be cut and the foil seal punctured before any product can be dispensed from the device. Product then may be dispensed using a mechanical device that applies pressure at the back of the cylindrical tube opposite the tip, often referred to as a “caulk gun”.
For aesthetic reasons, application of caulking or other sealants at various surfaces (around masonry, plumbing fixtures, windows and the like) requires precision to provide a bead of material having consistent width and/or depth and without surface blemishes. A properly cut dispensing tip on a caulk tube, for example, is preferably cut at a 45° angle at a location along the tip selected to provide a predetermined opening (and thus dispensed product) diameter. The cut must be without burrs to avoid striations or changes in shape of the applied bead. The foil seal must then be punctured to allow dispensing of the material in the tube.
Heretofore, such cuts were most often accomplished utilizing various knives, utility knives for example. Seal punctures were commonly produced by the nearest available lance, such as a nail or the like. Obtaining the desired tube cut (at the proper angle, linearity and without burrs) using such tools is difficult at best, and thus the desired degree of perfection in the application of the material bead is compromised. Such operations utilizing a utility knife are also hazardous for the worker.
Dedicated cutting tools or cutting markers for such purposes have heretofore been suggested and/or utilized, and have often been deployed together with a caulking gun (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,328,910, Des. 414,665, 4,158,914, 4,802,607, 6,056,156, 4,135,644 and 4,493,437. Such heretofore suggested dispensing tube cutting tools, however, have not always improved user safety or provided for selected tube tip opening diameter, angle precision or consistency and smoothness of cuts. Moreover, some tools heretofore suggested and/or utilized are often bulky and inconvenient or difficult to use (particularly when made part of a caulking gun). Larger tools are always subject to being laid down after use at a job site and forgotten and therefore not locatable when the next need arises. Tools that are difficult to use or time consuming in operation are soon abandoned to habitual use of older tools, even though the older tools may not provide the desired dispensing characteristics. The combination of a tool specifically adapted to provide repeatable, precision angled and located dispensing tube tip cuts and seal punctures, while being readily carried (in one's pocket, for example) by a user and thus ready for use as needed by a busy artisan, has not been heretofore suggested, and could be utilized.
Cutters have been suggested in different fields that provide for angled cuts of a stem or the like (for example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,911,577, 4,928,424 and 4,348,832). Such items have not been used for cutting in fields presenting the same problems encountered when opening dispensing tubes of the type discussed herein, and thus are not readily adaptable to the task. Other cutters utilize a more compact sliding knife design for cutting articles such as cigar tips and wire leads, but again are not readily adaptable for the opening of dispensing tubes (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,086,463, 5,992,022 and 4,597,179). Further improvements could thus still be utilized.